MS Dhoni CSK
MS Dhoni ensured CSK do not suffer a second defeat in IPL 7. Pal Pillai/CLT20/SPORTZPICS

The 2014 Indian Premier League (IPL) returns to its home country as the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) take on the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the 21<sup>st match at the JSCA International Cricket Stadium in Ranchi on Friday.

Where to Watch Live

The match is set to begin at 3:30pm BST. Live coverage will be available on ITV 4. Follow live text updates of the game on ESPN Cricinfo. Click here for the live streaming link.

Overview

CSK's IPL campaign at the United Arab Emirates does not contain any blips apart from the solitary defeat to table toppers Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) among their five matches.

In their previous fixture MS Dhoni's men left it late once again as they beat the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) last Sunday by five wickets. His bowlers restricted the Shikhar Dhawan's men to 145 runs in 20 overs and nicked five wickets in the process.

Mohit Sharma took his tally of wickets to eight with two scalps. Ben Hilfenhaus made it six from four matches with the same number of scalps while Dwayne Smith added one to his name.

On the batting front, Smith produced a Man of the Match performance. The right-handed batsman's knock of 66 runs from 46 deliveries included five sixes and four fours as his opening partner Brendon McCullum scored 40 runs from 33 balls.

Following McCullum's dismissal with 85 runs on the board, the remaining four wickets were lost in quick intervals. With the scoreboard reading 114/1 in the 14<sup>th over, Suresh Raina was the next batsman to fall after contributing 14 runs to the tally.

Smith and Faf du Plessis (0) too followed suit in the 16<sup>th over as CSK now needed 19 runs from 24 balls. The Chennai based outfit then lost Ravindra Jadeja in the 19<sup>th over with 138 runs on the board.

Dhoni (13) and Mithun Manhas (3) combined to eventually score the winning runs with three balls to spare.

Stephen Fleming's side are currently second in the points table with eight points after playing five matches.

Meanwhile, KKR endured their third defeat in the seventh IPL season as they lost to Rajasthan Royals (RR) after an enticing battle in the one-over eliminator.

IPL
Gautam Gambhir Photo by Pal Pillai-IPL-SPORTZ

The Kolkata based outfit were handed a target of 153 runs to chase as they clinched five wickets.

Vinay Kumar took two wickets while Morne Morkel and Shakib Al Hasan grabbed one wicket each; Manish Pandey was responsible for dismissing Shane Watson via run out.

KKR Captain Gautam Gambhir, who had only scored one run in the last four matches, began brightly and scored 45 runs in this fixture. However, Trevor Bayliss' side lost eight wickets in total as Suryakumar Yadav and Shakib were the subsequent highest scorers adding 31 and 29 runs to the tally respectively.

They managed to score 152 and tie the score in the last ball and took the game to the one-over eliminator. However, both sides could not be separated even after facing six deliveries each but the Royals were declared winners virtue of a superior boundary count during the 20-over innings.

The Knight Riders are currently fourth in the table with four points leading Royal Challengers Bangalore, SRH and Delhi Daredevils in the respective order courtesy of a superior Net Run-Rate.

Team News

Chennai Super Kings

Probable Lineup: Dwayne Smith, Brendon McCullum, Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni (c & wk), Faf du Plessis, Ravindra Jadeja, Mithun Manhas, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ben Hilfenhaus, Ishwar Pandey, Mohit Sharma

Kolkata Knight Riders

Probable Lineup: Gautam Gambhir (c), Jacques Kallis, Manish Pandey, Suryakumar Yadav, Shakib Al Hasan, Robin Uthappa (wk), Yusuf Pathan, Vinay Kumar, Piyush Chawla, Sunil Narine, Morne Morkel

Kolkata Knight Riders